** CORRECTS NAME OF TUESDAY'S HEARING ** John Galligan, center, the defense attorney for Maj. Nidal Hasan, goes through a security check as he arrives for a pre-trial hearing,Tuesday, June 1, 2010, in Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan, who is accused of opening fire at Fort Hood and killing 13 and wounding dozens more, was to make his first military courtroom appearance Tuesday as his attorney seeks to delay the case.

“Yes,” Hasan replied, after telling Gross he would be represented by three military attorneys.

Paralyzed from the chest down, Hasan spoke in a soft but strong voice. Gross, Fort Hood's chief circuit judge, set trial for March 5 in the same courtroom.

Galligan's exit from the team was dramatic and unexpected. He'd hinted Wednesday morning that a defense change was coming but offered few details.

Later, Galligan revealed he would take a leave of absence but didn't elaborate.

“For the purposes of the arraignment, I'm not there and my role has been interrupted,” he said in the prepared statement. “I am on a leave of absence.”

Galligan suggested to the San Antonio Express-News earlier in the day that he'd step down as lead attorney for Hasan, accused of shooting 45 GIs and civilians in a crowded post deployment center on Nov. 5, 2009.

He said he'd “forever be a part of Maj. Hasan's team in the broad sense of the word,” but didn't explain how.

A one-time Army judge, Galligan has spent more than a year defending Hasan and has been a vociferous advocate for his client. In his statement, Galligan said that “over the past year, my family and I have been vilified by many for defending” Hasan.

He compared his work with John Adams' representation of British soldiers in the Boston Massacre.

“Paraphrasing him, ‘The part I took in defense of (Hasan) procured me anxiety, and obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.'”

Galligan had worked with Lt. Col. Kris Poppe, an Army lawyer. But he declined to say if Poppe, a veteran attorney who has capital murder case experience, would step in as Hasan's lead counsel, or if another lawyer would join the team.

Hasan's defense attorneys did not meet with the media, but Geoffrey Corn, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said Galligan talked about the case before a class at the Houston school this year.

“He said that it's cost him a lot in terms of personal reputation, and some people are upset with him for taking it, but he didn't care. He felt it was his duty as a lawyer to represent the guy,” Corn said.

“I'm speculating, but I don't see Galligan walking from it unless he had irreconcilable differences with his client, which is a possibility,” Corn continued. “I think Galligan was committed to defend the guy, so I think Hasan discharged him.”

Both Corn and Frank Spinner, a Colorado Springs, Colo., attorney who worked with Poppe on an Army capital murder case last year at Fort Bragg, N.C., said attorney-client privilege prevents Galligan from discussing the reasons for his exit.

Hasan is charged with 13 specifications of premeditated murder and 32 specifications of attempted premeditated murder in the shooting at a crowded post deployment readiness center.

Witnesses at an evidentiary hearing last year sketched a scene of chaos after Hasan cried out, “
Allahu akbar!” and the shooting started.

A military sanity board ruled Hasan mentally fit for trial, and Fort Hood's commander recently ordered a trial here that could end with the death penalty.

Hasan said Wednesday he wished to be tried by a panel of 12 officers. Gross, the Fort Hood judge, said a death-penalty sentence would require agreement from all jurors.

“Do you understand what I have said so far?” Gross asked after explaining other details of the trial.